Speaker: Commercial, the girls were going to be secretaries. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: They were only going to go to a-- go to grade-twelve. They weren't- that w-- matriculation went to grade-thirteen. Interviewer: Mm. Speaker: We called it matriculation then and those- those people were boys and girls were mostly destined for university.

Speaker: Well you-know, you're- you're dealing ah- I-guess we were dealing a lot with the- the tech kids. Th-- we call them the four-year kids as opposed to being fi-- the five-year at the time. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Ah we didn't call them matriculation and tech anymore, we called them four-year kids and the five-year kids 'cause the five-year kids were- the boys and girls mixed pretty much.

But our dad thought we should all take matriculation and you can go on to s-- well for girls then you- if you got a job, you got about fifteen dollars a week. Were you going to save to go to university? No way. (Laughs) Boys- they'd work in the mine, get a little bit.

One of the older girls in grade thirteen had a boyfriend and his mother was a great friend of our matron.

... totally different personalities. I can see ah the little guy growing up as a teenager being the one standing on the back of the couch with the keg on the coffee table and throwing a huge party. ... As opposed to the daughter, well I can see her having the little mickey in her bag hiding in the bedroom with her friends and sipping on it. Two totally different personalities.

And that was it, it was a special occasion that you got a case of beer, which probably was about eight or nine dollars in those days. And ah- or you'd have a- s-- mickey of rye and then when we got a little more affluent we switched to scotch. And now I don't like rye, it gives me a headache.

Interviewer: Is- i-- is there a lot of coyotes? Speaker: There are actually, eating a lot of livestock. Sheep and other livestock so they were rather concerned about that. And then- so the M-N-R did come in and do a presentation.

And it's interesting because even though you shoot one coyote, doesn't necessarily mean you shot the one that's attacking your livestock. ... if you kill the one that are keeping the other coyotes away, you could be introducing the ones that have been trained to eat off your farm into your population. So it is an interesting tactic that the M-N-R are working out with now and doing studies on.

Interviewer: And so, what- you're background is not ah Finnish though. Speaker: No, I'm a mongrel. Interviewer: Mongrel? Speaker: Mongrel, Irish-English. You-know.

So the, the- whatever moonshine they were making is still- very much possibility that it's intact.

Speaker: Yeah, he made ah whatever it was called, moonshine-vodka. Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker: Ah and every so often. He'll be walking around behind the bush and you'll see these big coils of copper wrapped around the tree somewhere. And there these strange kettle looking things and that was them making moonshine. Interviewer: That's incredible. Have you ever had it? Speaker: Ever drank moonshine? No. Interviewer: You haven't? Speaker: No. Interviewer: No? Speaker: No. Yourself? Interviewer: No. Speaker: No. I've made it with- with a- an old Italian friend of mine. But it's not called moonshine it's called grappa.

Which he did, with, ah, like, fifty bottles of moonshine in the back. And no one's ever found it.

Okay, okay. Yeah no my dad comes from Cobalt, but he was born there. And my mother, like I said was- was born in Montreal but her dad had passed away and they couldn't- they just had a small mother's allowance back then and she had two children, couldn't visit her mother so her uncle who had a bakery in- ah, in Cobalt brought them to Cobalt to help them out. ... Figured by- by having them there, he could help them out better.

My brother had already been born. And my brother was two years and something. ... And my- there was no mothers'-allowance, there was nothing to help young women who was in the same situation. So she went back to the farm where there was no hydro, no heat except wood stove. ... After being in town where there was hydro, running water out of a tap.

And ah, today to be classified as miner, you can be- a scoop-tram operator, which is a mucker, you can be a driller, you can be a blaster, you can be a loader, uh, to load the roads, a pipe-fitter, ah, you can be all these things, but to me you're not- you're not a- a first-class miner, you're just- I had mentioned that earlier?

And the miners consider themselves miners if they drill and blast and they- they muck. They take the muck out. And, ah- like ah geologists underground and engineers are- are not considered miners.

Speaker: The most dangerous thing I've ever done in a mine. Taking down loose ground in front of us. Like when you drill and blast around, bush could be sixteen-feet wide. Ah, twelve to fourteen-feet high. And then you go and muck it out. Then there's loose ground above you. Interviewer: Oh my gosh. Speaker: And you have to get that down. Interviewer: How? Speaker: Well you muck it and then you rock bolt it. Y-- you muck and you rock bolt.

The most dangerous thing I've ever done in a mine. Taking down loose ground in front of us. Like when you drill and blast around, bush could be sixteen-feet wide. Ah, twelve to fourteen-feet high. And then you go and muck it out. Then there's loose ground above you.

But you go down and you usually go in- sit down have a cup of coffee or whatever you want. Then you go into wherever you're working and do whatever you're supposed to be doing. Whether you're drilling or mucking or on the moulder pulling...

Now (laughs), I can't remember- I- I tend to get mushy-gushy I guess.